The Joint Committee on Public School Funding held its first public meeting on August 10, 2006. Committee members made brief statements and then listened to a presentation by the Office of Legislative Services on the legislative and judicial history of school funding in New Jersey.

 

At its hearing on Tuesday, August 22, the Joint Committee on Public School Funding heard testimony about how other states across the nation have grappled with school funding reform. School funding lawsuits have been filed in 45 out of 50 states.

Senator John Adler, co-chair of the committee, said he was willing to consider capping the spending of the wealthy districts. "I won't support drastic cuts in spending for the poorest districts, but limits should be considered for our wealthiest districts," said Adler, D-Camden.

The Education Law Center has posted profiles of each of the 31 Abbott school districts. The profiles contain information on 65 separate "indicators" or data elements about the community, the school children, the teachers and the schools. These indicators include characteristics of students, local fiscal resources, community characteristics and student performance. Information on each district can be compared to all Abbott districts and the state average.

On August 15, the Department of Education released information on the number of highly qualified teachers in New Jersey schools. Four percent of New Jersey's public school classes are being taught by teachers who do not meet the definition of Highly Qualified pursuant to the federal No Child Left Behind Act which requires such qualification in every core subject they teach. This showing is an improvement over last year when the number of classes without a highly qualified teacher was 6.5 per cent.

High poverty districts continue to lag behind other districts in this area although there has been improvement since last year. In 2006, 9.3 percent of classes in high poverty districts did not have a highly qualified teacher. Last year the percentage was 13.7 percent.

Oral argument is scheduled for Sept. 29, 2006 on the Education Law Center's lawsuit against the Department of Education seeking the release of a 2003 costing out study paid for by the department. The argument will take place in Superior Court in Trenton. As previously reported, the Education Law Center sued the department to release the results of this study. The Star Ledger reported in its coverage of the lawsuit, that the state's overall spending on schools wasn't far off what's needed under the model, according to its chief author, but was unevenly distributed and about $500 million short in a total spending package of about $16 billion at the time. Read the Star Ledger article and an accompanying editorial urging the state to release the study.

Study of test scores finds charter schools lag behind traditional schools.

Half of states now require exit exams for high school graduation.

Qualified teachers are in short supply.